As mentioned in the introduction, the APM automatically recommends price changes based on a pre-defined set of business rules. The main benefit of this feature is that it makes the process of analysing competitor price points quick and easy. Furthermore, it automates the process of suggesting price changes. It works by comparing all of your competitor prices to your prices, and then in correlation with your business rule or rules, suggests a price amendment. This process runs daily with the captured data to keep your pricing competitively strong.
↓Business rules can be complex as well as being simple. Business rules are the logic behind the price recommendations and they normally follow this defined construct-
IF (condition), THEN (do this), CONSTRAINT (providing this condition is met)
Some examples of a business rule are-
What you want to achieve: Match any competitor price lower than my price providing my margin is greater than 10%
Business rule 1
IF (any competitor price is lower than my price),
THEN (match the competitor price),
CONSTRAINT (providing my margin > 10%)
Another example could be- What do you want to achieve: Increase my price to match the lowest price
Business rule 2
IF (my price is the lowest price),
THEN (increase the price to match the lowest competitor price),
CONSTRAINT (none)
The approved price changes can easily be downloaded into a file that can then be updated to your eCommerce or content management system or can be fully integrated into your back end systems. The APM is also capable of handling more specific and complex business rules. For example, if you wanted to match a certain brand or even further a certain category such as Fender guitars, this can be implemented into your APM system so that the specific group of products are effected by the business rule.